Plenary Speakers

Announcing the
2012 WRSSSS Plenary Speaker PresentationsPlenary Speaker Order may change : please check back for more information

Thursday Night6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Opening Plenary: David Linden, Ph.D.(1.5 CE hrs)Title: “Vice, Virtue and the Brain’s Pleasure Circuits”Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist and author of “The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good” looks at the neurobiology of pleasure. Whether eating, taking drugs, engaging in sex, or doing good deeds, the pursuit of pleasure is a central drive of the human animal and explains how pleasure affects us at the most fundamental level: in our brain.

Friday10:30 am – 12:00 pm Plenary: Adult Film Industry Panel – (Nina Hartley, John Stagliano, Kayden Kross and Morgan Sommer – Moderated by Dr. Carol Queen)Adult Film Industry Panel – “How Explicit Sexual Media Shapes and Reflects Desire” (CE 2 hrs) Explicit sexual video is a complex and controversial product. A stigmatized form of entertainment, it is continually subjected to government regulation and social condemnation and the source of interpersonal and relational conflict. Yet sexual video persists as one of the most popular forms of entertainment and means of sexual expression in the world. Join Nina Hartley, John Stagliano, Kayden Kross and Morgan Sommer for an insider’s view of influences and impact of sexual video on consumer sexual desire.

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Plenary: Martin Weinberg, PhD., Colin Williams, PhD, and Joshua Rosenberger, Ph.D.(1.5 CE hrs) Grounded in the theoretical work of Stevi Jackson (2005) and Diane Richardson (2007) our recent work examines the experiences of people who transition from living as a woman to living as a man (“trans men”). We focus on their bodily experience. We employ the concept of “gendered embodiment” and introduce the concept of “sexualized embodiment” to highlight what is involved in this process of transition. In this way, we discover how experiencing gender as a man is reflexively tied to a trans man’s sexuality.

Saturday10:15 am – 11:45 pm Plenary: Tim Fong, M.D.(2 CE hrs)Title: “Perspectives on the DSM-5 Proposed Classification of Hypersexual Disorder”
Dr. Fong discusses the DSM-5 proposal for Hypersexual Disorder and the significance of creating a “new disorder” in the mental health field that also has ramifications for sex researchers. Dr. Fong will present some of the findings from the DSM-5 Field Trial for Hypersexual Disorder and discuss relevant considerations for treatment including possible pharmacological interventions in the field of psychiatry.

2:30 pm – 4:00 pm Jim Weinrich, Ph.D.(1.5 CE hrs)Title: “On Being Hetero-Homo-Bi-Asexual: Sexual Attraction Subtypes Revealed in Two Samples Drawn 14 Years Apart”Women are attractive to heterosexual men, bisexual men, bisexual women, and lesbian women — that is to say, to gynephiles. Correspondingly, men are attractive to homosexual men, bisexual men, bisexual women, and heterosexual women — that is to say, to androphiles. This raises two questions of very broad scope: (1) Are the four groups of gynephiles attracted to women in the same ways? (2) Are the four groups of androphiles attracted to men in the same ways?The results in our two internet surveys conducted about 15 years apart? “Yes “and “Sometimes No.” This unexpected and revealing pair of answers suggests that sexual attraction is much more subtle than might at first be hypothesized. Human beings are distributed across the sexual orientation landscape in some predictable ways, as well as in some unpredictable, irregular ways. Why this might be will of course be addressed and discussed.

Dr. Fong is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Dr. Fong completed his undergraduate and medical school at Northwestern University in Chicago. He then came to UCLA and finished his residency in adult general psychiatry in 2002 and was the first accredited addiction psychiatry fellow at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute (2002-2004).

Currently, he is the co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program. He is also the Director of the UCLA Impulse Control Disorders Clinic, a treatment program that specializes in the treatment of behavioral addiction. Finally, he is also the director of the UCLA Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship, which provides high-level training in addiction psychiatry.

Nina Hartley (Adult Entertainment Panel)A dedicated student of human sexuality for over thirty years, Nina Hartley began her career as an adult entertainer while an undergraduate in nursing at San Francisco State University, dancing weekly at the Mitchell Brothers’ O’Farrell Theater. By the time she graduated (magna cum laude) in 1985, she had become determined to speak out on the subject of sex work from experience, not theory. Banding together with like-minded women during the “porn wars” of the mid-1980’s, she was a founding member of the Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force, whose impact on mainstream feminist thinking gave rise to a younger generation of sex-positive writers and activists.

Still in high demand as an on-screen talent in X-rated features, Ms. Hartley also co-produces her own line of instructional videos, Nina Hartley’s Guides, the market-leader in adult sex-education-video programming, currently in its twenty-sixth installment. She lectures on campuses across the country and has contributed extensively to anthologies regarding sex and feminism. Her publishing credits include Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry. Whores and Other Feminists, and Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write About Their Clients. She currently writes advice columns for the magazine Hustler’s Taboo. Her portrait, with an accompanying essay, is featured in photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders recent anthology XXX: Porn Star Portraits, from Bullfinch/Time-Warner, 2004, introduction by Gore Vidal.

Ms. Hartley has recently released Nina Hartley’s Guide to Total Sex, a comprehensive book based on her video Guide series, for Avery, a division of Penguin Group.

Further information about Nina Hartley can be found at www.nina.com.

David J. Linden, Ph.DDr. Linden is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His laboratory has worked for many years on the cellular substrates of memory storage in the brain and a few other topics. He has a longstanding interest in scientific communication and serves as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology. He is the author of two books on the biology of behavior for a general audience, The Accidental Mind (Harvard/Belknap, 2007) and The Compass of Pleasure (Viking Press, 2011) which, to date, have been translated into 12 languages.

Dr. L.C. Miccio-Fonseca’s clinical background is extensive, including writing, consulting, clinical research, forensic psychologist, clinical supervision, and expert witness in cases of sexual abuse with individuals of all ages and both genders.

Dr. Miccio-Fonseca is highly specialized; last 30 years working with sexually abusive individuals; maintaining a practice in her field of specialization in Southern California. Her ongoing research on sex offenders has led to development of unique tools for assessing sexually abusive individuals.

Dr. Miccio-Fonseca published a first of its kind versatile inventory used in exploring erotic development, The Personal Sentence Completion Inventory (PSCI, 1994).

Dr. Miccio-Fonseca served as past Chair of Board of Directors of the California Coalition on Sexual Offending (2007-2009, CCOSO). In May 2010, the California Coalition on Sexual Offending awarded Dr. Miccio-Fonseca the Faye Honey Knopp Award in recognition “of exceptional dedication, commitment, and leadership to the field of sexual offender treatment.”

Carol Queen, D.H.S. (Moderator, Adult Entertainment Panel)Dr. Carol Queen is a writer and cultural sexologist with a Ph.D. in human sexuality and works as staff sexologist and Chief Cultural Officer at Good Vibrations (www.goodvibes.com); she is also the co-founder of the Center for Sex & Culture (www.sexandculture.org). Her essay collections Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture (1997, 2002, Cleis) and PoMoSexuals(1998, co-edited L. Schimel, Cleis) are read in university classes across America. Her erotic stories can be found in many anthologies, and are being collected into a book this year; her erotic novel The Leather Daddy and the Femme (1998, 2003) won a Firecracker Alternative Book Award. Her first book, Exhibitionism for the Shy (1995, 2009) explores issues of erotic self-esteem and enhancement. She’s also edited several volumes of erotica and has appeared in several explicit educational videos, notably “Bend Over Boyfriend: An Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Male Anal Pleasure.” She’s the scriptwriter and presenter of explicit sex education videos for Good Vibrations’ sister company, Good Releasing.

Queen has addressed numerous scholarly and professional conferences, including SSSS, the International Condom Conference, the International Conference on Prostitution, and the International Conference on Pornography; she frequently addresses college as well as lay audiences. In February 2009 she debated the question of promiscuity (“Virtue or vice?”) for the Oxford Union at Oxford University, England, and in February 2012 she served as discussant at a Boston University showing of anti-porn “documentary” “The Price of Pleasure” at which Gail Dines also appeared. She has served on the boards of directors of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and the Free Speech Coalition. For more (including CV and bibliography), see her website: www.carolqueen.com.

Morgan Sommer (Adult Entertainment Panel)
Morgan Sommer is a partner at Cybersocket, Inc. Morgan was born and raised in Southern California and went to college in Hawaii and Massachusetts. He has been involved in the adult entertainment industry for over 16 years. He and his business partner founded Cybersocket 15 years ago. Cybersocket is a multimedia publishing company. The company produces two review sites, a suite of blogs, the largest circulation free gay magazine in the U.S., a webmaster forum – thegayboard.com, and operates AWOLmarines.com through its affiliate program Gay Green Backs (gaygreenbacks.com).

John Stagliano (Adult Entertainment Panel)John Stagliano is an American entrepreneur, producer, director, and writer who founded and owns the Evil Angel film studio. He received critical acclaim for his self produced Las Vegas stage show “Fashionistas” and is well known for his contributions and work with the non-partisan libertarian public policy advocate think tank The Reason Foundation. John is widely recognized as having revolutionized the adult film industry. In addition to the many awards for his work, John has been the recipient of numerous awards for his lifelong First Amendment protection efforts, including the Free Speech Coalition Man of the Year and The Reason Foundation’s Flame of Freedom Award.

Martin Weinberg, Ph.D.Title: “Trans Men: Identities, Sexualities, and Embodiments”Professor Martin Weinberg did his Ph.D. work at Northwestern University where he developed a broad interest in interpretive sociology and the sociology of deviance. His first academic position was as an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. During that period, he published articles on social interaction in nudist camps and with Earl Rubington launched Deviance: The Interactionist Perspective and The Study of Social Problems: Five Perspectives, which are still popular course books and currently in their 9th and 6th editions respectively. While at Rutgers, he became increasingly interested in directing his social interactionist interests toward the study of sexual minorities and began his first research on gays. In 1968 he joined our department as an Associate Professor and for 13 years had a joint appointment as Senior Research Sociologist at the Kinsey Institute. While affiliated with the Institute, among other publications, he co-authored Homosexualities, Sexual Preference, and Male Homosexuals: Their Problems and Adaptations. As a Professor, he has studied a variety of topics including models of female sexuality, premarital sex, foot fetishism, intersexuality, sadomasochism, sexually explicit images, sex work, and bisexuality. Recent work has focused specifically on comparing premarital sexual attitudes and behaviors in Sweden and the United States, differences in the work organization and sexuality of women, men, and transgender sex workers, the behavior and identity of bisexuals as they progress along the life course, why in New Zealand male sex workers are no more likely to be infected with HIV than other men who have sex with men, and the social and interpretive worlds of men who have sex with animals. He is currently completing a paper on the social construction of erotic photographs that have appeared in major museums and is involved in research on the sociology of the body and bodily functions. Martin gets special joy from his grandchildren, jazz, photography, good eating, travel, and humor.

Jim Weinrich, Ph.D.
Plenary Title:“On Being Hetero-Homo-Bi-A-sexual: Sexual Attraction Subtypes Revealed in Two Samples Drawn 14 Years Apart”James D. Weinrich, Ph.D., was given the “Outstanding Contributions to Sexual Science” award at the 2011 SSSS WR meeting for his research in sexual orientation. Holding degrees in Biology and Mathematics, he went back to school to earn a Master’s degree in Psychology, finishing in 2008 — which marked the beginning of his return to the academic world and to SSSS. Every thesis he has ever written has had to do with sex research, and he is thrilled to have been invited to present his 2008 work to the SSSS community. He currently teaches Human Sexuality, and other psychology courses, at San Diego-area colleges and universities, and is the editor of the Journal of Bisexuality (since April 2011). He may or may not appear on an upcoming episode of the “Taboo” documentary series on the National Geographic Channel.

Colin J Williams, Ph.D. (c)Title: “Trans Men: Identities, Sexualities, and Embodiments”Colin J. Williams is a Professor of Sociology at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. His research interests include sociology of deviant behavior, human sexuality, sociological theory, and sociology of sexual behavior (especially human sexual variations). His publications include Homosexuals and the Military (1971), Male Homosexuals (1974), Sex and Morality in the U.S. (1989), and Dual Attraction:Understanding Bisexuality (1994); and articles in major sociology journals.